Leatherman still hands-on in a digital age

THE Leatherman multi-tool has been around for 30 years and spawned a host of imitators.

But tool inventor Tim Leatherman - yes that really is his name - says his biggest competitor today is the smartphone.

Leatherman multi-tools have found millions of users and are to the physical world what the smartphone is to the web: a handheld device with multiple applications.

As more people opt for screen time over tool time, the hands-on world is a little under challenge.

But Leatherman is confident his creation, with its built-in pliers, knives, screwdrivers and other useful things, will be around for years to come.

"I agree, I think more than Gerber or SOG or Victorinox (competing multi-tool makers) our biggest competitor is the smartphone," the quietly spoken engineer says.

"But we're doing fine - there are still a lot of people need to use the tool on the job, a lot of people that enjoy outdoor activities."

Many of those people are in Australia, which is Leatherman's second largest export market after Germany, with an estimated 100,000 sold here each year.

The Leatherman story is one of inventiveness and extraordinary perseverance.

Leatherman was 27 when he asked his wife, Chau, for a month to develop a multi-tool idea that had come to him during their travels through Europe in the 1970s.

Their secondhand Fiat had needed constant repairs and Leatherman, armed only with a pocket knife, had found himself wishing for a knife that included a pair of pliers.

That first month stretched into three years' labouring in the garage while Chau supported them.

Leatherman produced a prototype - called "Mr Crunch" - but found no interest from manufacturers; it would be another five years before the first sale.

"Let's say my faith wavered a few times - I don't think I ever totally lost it," Leatherman said.

"I can remember on the night of my 30th birthday, going to bed and starting to cry because I was thinking about what I've done with my life these last three years - I've been working on this tool every day, my wife's been supporting me and still I have nothing to show for it."

Leatherman went back to work while refining and trying to raise interest in his tool, and four years later partnered with university friend Steve Berliner to drive the business.

The pair soon secured an order from a sports equipment catalogue.

Leatherman, now 65, is semi-retired but remains chairman of Leatherman Tool Group and owns 93 per cent of the company, with Berliner holding the remainder.

Takeover offers arrive "practically weekly" but he plans to keep control of Leatherman and keep production in Portland, Oregon, where the company employs more than 500 staff.

"I have no interest at all in being a public company and having all those shareholders trying to be my boss," he says.

"There are lots of people who said I'm crazy to keep producing in the US but for me, the thing I'm most proud about of the whole Leatherman odyssey is the creation of the jobs, and for as long as possible I want to keep those jobs in Portland."

Leatherman thinks manufacturing has a future in developed economies.

"There's always going to be a third world country where wages are one-twentieth of what they are in the US but the quality is also one twentieth or even one-fiftieth," he says.